Patrick Watson and his band performed with the NAC Orchestra on Saturday, and the results were downright enthralling. Hunched over the grand piano and warbling in his expressive falsetto, the classically trained Montreal singer-songwriter was in his element amid the lush textures of Ottawa’s world-class orchestra.

On a bitterly cold and snowy night in the capital, Watson and the dozens of musicians on stage — conducted by Kingston Symphony music director Evan Mitchell — created a sense of warmth and intimacy in front of a soldout crowd of more than 2,000 people at Southam Hall. The concert was part of the NAC Presents’ Sessions series, an initiative that matches singer-songwriters with the orchestra, and provides the artist with the opportunity to work with a pro to come up with arrangements of their material.

Montreal musician Patrick Watson.Ashley Fraser /
Postmedia

The unusual arrangements were definitely a highlight of the concert. While Watson’s songs are meticulously composed and layered to start with, the orchestral arrangements created by English conductor/arranger Jules Buckley, who’s 39 and greatly inspired by Looney Tunes composer Carl Stalling, brought them to another level with unexpected sounds and flourishes, including sliding whistles, squealing balloons and other non-traditional effects. Those surprises were used most effectively in the simmering build of Where The Wild Things Are.

The evening offered a superb demonstration of the emotional range of songwriting, from the hushed dreaminess of Lighthouse to the bustling peaks and lonely valleys of Beijing, to the soothing sentiment of To Build A Home, with its central lyric, “This is a place where I don’t feel alone.” Adding to the ethereal atmosphere were the mood-enhancing spotlights and a murky haze that emanated from a fog machine. There was also a chance for the orchestra to strut its stuff on a piece by Ravel.

To Build A Home is one of Watson’s biggest hits, a quiet, piano-driven ballad that’s been streamed tens of millions of times, racking up numbers that rival the latest Lady Gaga mega hit. In an interview before the concert, Watson said its popularity has made him realize that people prefer to listen to something other than frenzied pop music when they get home.

Montreal musician Patrick Watson took a moment after rehearsals at the National Arts Centre on Saturday.Ashley Fraser /
Postmedia

“It doesn’t seem that people want to listen to crazy new rock ‘n’ roll or catchy bubblegum pop music as much as they want to talk about it,” he said. “I think they want something that slows down time, and brings you out of this world. That’s what I’m banking on.”

Watson has been working on a new album, his first since 2015’s acclaimed Love Songs For Robots, which never got much radio play but helped him continue building an audience on both sides of the Atlantic. Last month’s European tour featured a string of soldout concerts in increasingly larger venues.

“There’s never any hype about what we do,” observed Watson. “We put out a record, and then slowly it digs into people’s lives. They play it more than once, and they show their friends. It just seems like the kind of music we do just slowly grows every day. And it’s a very young audience, which is interesting.”

It seems millennials are discovering Watson’s songs through other avenues, including TV shows, advertising and video games. Popular shows such as The Walking Dead, Homeland, This is Us and Orange is the New Black have all featured his work.

The 39-year-old father of three young children said his forthcoming album may be his last full-length project, largely because of the music industry’s Spotify-driven shift to singles.

“It’s a different musical landscape,” he said. “I will probably never make another full-length record again.”

Whether or not it’s the last one, he’s determined to make it count. “I’ve taken my time over the last four years,” he said. “I want to put out nine heavy-hitting songs. No fluff. To enter the Spotify world, which is so overwhelmingly flushed with so much music, I just didn’t feel like putting anything out unless I felt it was really, really good.

“Instead of making a long 45-minute story, I’m more interested in making songs that can stand on their own as well, outside the story, which is incredibly difficult. That’s why it’s taking so goddamn long.”

He’s released two new songs so far, introducing the evocative Venezuelan-inspired Melody Noir during Saturday’s concert. There will be a third single soon, but we’ll have to wait until September for the full album.

“I don’t want to flood the market,” he said. “Some people want to release a million things and maybe get some on a playlist. That works, but I just want to put something out that blows people’s minds.”

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